Editorial: Secrecy surrounding harassment claims is an outrage

It’s bad enough that $248,000 in Pennsylvania taxpayers’ money funded a sexual-harassment settlement involving a longtime member of the state House of Representatives.

What many state residents might consider worse is that it has taken two years for the payment to see “the light of day.”

Transparency should have ruled regarding the settlement from the day it was paid, not secrecy.

Beyond that, there apparently have been other settlements, for reasons not fully disclosed, for which taxpayers also have doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2007.

Taxpayers have a right to know the details of those “transactions.”

The $248,000 that was paid out in 2015 was on behalf of Democratic Rep. Tom Caltagirone, who has represented the Reading area for four decades. Claims of sexual harassment targeting Caltagirone were filed by an unidentified woman who was described as a legislative assistant in the lawmaker’s district office.

Of the total amount paid in the Caltagirone case, $165,500 went to the woman and $82,500 to her lawyer.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were the first to report on a document tied to the settlement. That document, prepared by the state’s Bureau of Risk and Insurance Management, said House Democrats in 2015 had authorized the payments.

On Dec.19, the Associated Press obtained what was described as a “sovereign immunity-tort claims settlement memorandum and invoice” connected to Caltagirone, bearing the signatures of House Democratic chief counsel Nora Winkelman and the state’s risk and insurance management director.

The form indicated that the woman initially had sought $1.5 million under “a complaint of discrimination, among other things,” under a federal law banning discrimination based on sex, race, color, national origin and religion.

On the basis of what was sought compared with what was paid, the taxpayers got a bargain.

However, the fact that any taxpayers’ money was used for the settlement was an affront to the people of this state.

Then surfaced more cause for taxpayer anger when, late on Dec. 19, House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, revealed that the House Democratic Caucus had agreed to pay out $514,000 since 2007 to settle claims filed by employees.

According to Dermody, two claims alleged sexual harassment by two House members and five involved other types of employment issues.

In an email since the Caltagirone case surfaced, Winkelman acknowledged that she had “submitted (and signed) several requests over the years on behalf of the caucus” for payment from the state Department of General Services under the commonwealth’s self-insured liability insurance plan in which the House participates.

Thankfully those days may be over. It’s long past time.

Two woman legislators from Delaware County are leading the push to provide both more protection and a lot more transparency to sexual harassment cases involving elected officials.

Rep. Leanne Krueger Braneky, D-161 of Swarthmore, and Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164 of Upper Darby, are pushing a package of bills that, among other things, would ban such secret settlements. They also take aim at providing more protection for women when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Such a commonsense approach to this now seemingly ubiquitous social issue is long overdue in what for far too long has been the testosterone-ruled Boys Club that stands for the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Considering the many sexual harassment allegations that have surfaced on the federal government level and in the entertainment industry — and the public disgust that those incidents has spawned — Gov. Tom Wolf had little recourse but to call for Caltagirone’s resignation.

Indeed, Caltagirone should resign for the blot he has inflicted, not only on himself but on the House — and on state government in general.

An apology isn’t enough.

Hopefully, there won’t have to be any more payments. But if there ever are, they should be reported to the public immediately, along with the name of the person or persons whose alleged wrongdoing made those payments necessary.